In short: The species decides almost everything. CDC lists Guatemala as high-risk for dog rabies, so a dog vaccinated in Guatemala takes CDC’s strictest route: at least 6 months old, microchipped before the rabies shot, a government-endorsed rabies certification, a passing titre from a CDC-approved lab or a 28-day quarantine, a reservation at a CDC-registered animal care facility, and arrival by air at one of only six US airports — no land border crossings. A cat faces none of that: CDC does not require proof of rabies vaccination for cats, only that the animal appears healthy. Guatemala’s own exit paperwork is a separate, cheaper layer run by MAGA-VISAR. This page reports published rules; it is not veterinary or legal advice.
Nearly everything written about moving pets to Guatemala covers the outbound leg from the United States. The return leg — the volunteer who fell for a street dog in Antigua, the family whose cat has lived in Zona 14 for two years — is governed by a completely different body under rules that were rebuilt in 2024, and it is the leg where people lose money by finding out too late.
Two authorities, two jobs, and they do not talk to each other:
- MAGA-VISAR (Guatemala’s Viceministerio de Sanidad Agropecuaria y Regulaciones) decides what the animal needs to leave Guatemala.
- CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, through NCEZID) decides what it needs to enter the United States. USDA also has requirements, and dogs imported for resale have more.
Neither one checks the other’s box for you. MAGA’s own sheet says so, in its heading for US-bound pets: the owner must consult CDC’s requirements in advance.
Cat versus dog: the comparison that decides your budget
| Cat leaving Guatemala for the USA | Dog vaccinated in Guatemala | |
|---|---|---|
| CDC rabies vaccination proof | Not required for importation | Required — unvaccinated dogs from a high-risk country are not allowed to enter |
| Minimum age at entry | Not published by CDC for cats | 6 months |
| Microchip | Not published by CDC for cats | Required, readable by universal scanner, implanted before the rabies vaccine |
| Rabies titre | Not applicable | Passing titre from a CDC-approved lab, or a 28-day quarantine instead |
| CDC Dog Import Form | Not applicable | Required, one per dog, free |
| Government-endorsed certification | Not applicable | Certification of Foreign Rabies Vaccination and Microchip, endorsed by an official government veterinarian |
| Where it may arrive | Ports of entry generally; subject to inspection | Only an airport with a CDC-registered animal care facility — six of them |
| Health on arrival | Must appear healthy; may be denied entry for evidence of zoonotic disease | Must appear healthy; dogs arriving sick may be denied entry |
| Guatemalan exit paperwork | Same as a dog | Same as a cat |
The asymmetry is not a loophole and it is not our inference — it is CDC’s published position. CDC’s animal-importation page states that cats are not required to have proof of rabies vaccination for importation into the United States, while recommending vaccination and pointing to state-level requirements. CDC’s dog rules, by contrast, are a regulation-driven regime rebuilt with effect from 1 August 2024.
Why Guatemala is the hard case
CDC maintains a list of countries and political units considered high risk for importing dog rabies. Guatemala is on it, on a page CDC last dated 15 April 2026.
CDC’s framing of what the list does: dogs that have been in any listed country within the past 6 months are required to be vaccinated against rabies to enter the US and must also meet additional requirements covering age, microchip, rabies serology titre, health and documentation. Conversely, CDC says that if a country is not listed, it is not considered high risk, and the additional requirements do not apply.
Two consequences people miss:
- It is the dog’s travel history, not its passport, that matters. A dog that spent a month in Guatemala inside the last 6 months is treated as coming from a high-risk country even if it flew in from somewhere else afterwards.
- There are two different dog paths, and which one you are on depends on where the rabies vaccine was given — not where the dog lives.
Path A — your own dog, vaccinated in the USA, going home
This is the expat who brought a dog down and is taking it back. CDC requires two documents:
- the CDC Dog Import Form receipt (completed online, free, one per dog); and
- a Certification of U.S.-issued Rabies Vaccination form, filled in by a USDA-accredited veterinarian before the dog departs the United States and endorsed by USDA.
CDC is emphatic that this is not the ordinary rabies certificate a vet gives you for local registration — it is a specific CDC form. Get it before you leave the US. If you do not have it, CDC says your options for re-entry are limited, and you fall back to Path B below.
Two dated rules sit on this path, and both are easy to get wrong:
- USDA-endorsed export health certificates issued after 31 July 2025 will not be accepted for re-entry.
- A USDA-endorsed export health certificate issued no later than 31 July 2025 may still be used, multiple times, in place of the certification form — but only if it was endorsed by USDA and is viewable in USDA’s database, and includes the dog’s age (at least 6 months), its microchip number, and current, valid, unexpired US-issued rabies vaccination information administered after the microchip was inserted.
With those documents the dog may enter at any airport, seaport or land border crossing, as long as the port matches the one on the CDC Dog Import Form receipt. The dog must still appear healthy, be at least 6 months old, and be microchipped before its rabies vaccine.
Path B — a dog vaccinated in Guatemala (every rescue dog)
This is the hard path, and it is the one that applies to an adopted Guatemalan dog. CDC’s requirement list, in its own terms:
| Requirement | The published detail |
|---|---|
| Certification of Foreign Rabies Vaccination and Microchip | Completed by the dog’s veterinarian and endorsed by an official government veterinarian in the exporting country. Completed no more than 30 days before travel; valid for 30 days after the vet signs it; usable one time only. Must be printed and accompany the dog |
| Valid rabies serology titre | From a CDC-approved laboratory. Blood drawn at least 30 days after the first valid rabies vaccination and at least 28 days before entry. CDC will not accept other laboratories |
| …or a 28-day quarantine | If there is no valid titre, the dog can be admitted after 28 days at a CDC-registered animal care facility |
| Facility reservation | Required in every case. Includes examination and revaccination with a US-licensed rabies vaccine; plus the 28-day quarantine if there is no titre. All costs are the importer’s responsibility |
| Itinerary | Arriving by air at the US airport where that facility is located, matching the CDC Dog Import Form receipt |
| Microchip | Readable by a universal scanner, implanted before the rabies vaccine or the vaccine is invalid; the number goes on every form |
| Age | At least 6 months at entry. First rabies vaccine at 12 weeks (84 days) or older, given at least 28 days before entry. For high-risk countries, vaccines given before 12 weeks are not accepted regardless of manufacturer licensing |
| Health | Must appear healthy on arrival |
| Language | Documents and written statements in English or with a certified English translation |
| CDC Dog Import Form | Receipt required; free; one form per dog; valid for a single entry on the arrival date listed. A photo of the dog is needed, and dogs under one year must have the photo taken within 15 days before travel |
The six airports
CDC publishes the animal care facilities by city, and the list is short:
| Airport | Facility CDC lists |
|---|---|
| Atlanta, Georgia (ATL) | Dandie Scottie Kennel |
| Los Angeles, California (LAX) | Kennel Club LAX; Rue’s Kennels @ LAX |
| Miami, Florida (MIA) | Pet Limo |
| New York, New York (JFK) | The ARK Pet Oasis — CDC notes the dog must land at JFK, not Newark or LaGuardia |
| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (PHL) | Gateway Animal Care Center |
| Washington, DC (IAD) | Pender Pet Retreat |
CDC also notes that for travel to LAX, transporting dogs as cargo is preferred to avoid clearance delays, and that dogs not arriving as cargo must be transferred to cargo on arrival. Domestic onward flights are not allowed until the dog has received the required services at the facility. So a rescue dog headed for Denver or Dallas does not fly to Denver or Dallas — it flies to one of those six, clears, and travels on afterwards.
Costs at the facility are set by the facility, not by CDC, and CDC tells importers to contact the facility to determine them. We are not publishing an estimate: no CDC-published price schedule exists, and a number invented here would be the least reliable figure on the page. Contact the facility before you book anything.
One narrow exception
CDC allows foreign-vaccinated service dogs as defined in 14 CFR 382.3 from high-risk countries to arrive by sea, provided they meet all other requirements and travel with the person with a disability the dog is trained to assist; arriving by sea, they do not need a facility reservation. CDC states expressly that emotional support animals are not service animals under that definition.
The Guatemalan exit layer
Whatever CDC wants, MAGA-VISAR still has to let the animal out. Its sheet sets, for both dogs and cats:
- a Certificado de Salud signed and stamped by a veterinarian in professional practice, giving the animal’s name, age, sex, breed, colour and physical characteristics, confirming it was examined and found free of clinical signs of infectious-contagious or parasitic disease, and recording vaccines with their validity dates and deworming with products approved by the country of origin;
- a Carnet de vacunación, stamped and signed, showing rabies applied not less than 1 month before travel, “Exceptuando Animales menores de 3 meses de edad”; and
- a Certificado Zoosanitario Internacional de Exportación for destinations outside Central America — the United States — obtained at MAGA’s export window in the AGEXPORT building, 15 avenida 14-72 zona 13, telephone 24223400, cost USD 6.25, presenting the other certificates for each pet, and shown at the point of exit.
Note the collision hiding in there: MAGA’s minimum is a rabies shot one month before travel. CDC’s minimum for a foreign-vaccinated dog is a rabies shot at least 28 days before entry and a titre drawn at least 30 days after that vaccination and at least 28 days before entry. Satisfying MAGA does not satisfy CDC. Working backwards from CDC’s titre windows, the vaccination has to happen roughly two months ahead of travel at the earliest — CDC’s own checklist recommends starting 60 days or more before travel.
Separately, VISAR’s sheet requires pets that entered Guatemala and leave more than 30 days later to obtain the export certificate — the rule that catches long-stay visitors, covered in bringing a cat to Guatemala.
Edge cases worth knowing
- A health certificate is not a CDC requirement for pets. CDC states it does not require general certificates of health for pets entering the US — but says they may be required by some states or by airlines. Guatemala requires one to let the animal out regardless.
- Hawaii and Guam are their own regime. CDC notes all cats arriving there, even from the US mainland, are subject to locally imposed quarantine.
- Changing your flight invalidates your paperwork. CDC requires a new Dog Import Form if anything changes — travel date or arrival airport — and the receipt is valid only for the arrival date listed.
- One dog, one form, one entry. Each dog needs its own CDC form, and the Certification of Foreign Rabies Vaccination and Microchip may be used only once.
- The commercial line matters. CDC points out that dogs imported for resale have additional USDA requirements. A rescue moved by an organisation may not be a personal pet import.
- MAGA’s own cross-reference is stale. The CDC link printed on VISAR’s 2024 sheet now redirects to CDC’s general animal-importation page rather than the dog page it names (verified 2026-08-11). The requirements did not move; the URL did.
- The other direction — bringing an animal into Guatemala — is covered in bringing a cat to Guatemala and, for the US-side logistics with a dog, bringing your dog to Guatemala from the USA. For non-living items, see what you can take back to the USA from Guatemala.
Sources
- High-Risk Countries for Dog Rabies — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID). Source of Guatemala’s classification and of the 6-month look-back framing. cdc.gov — retrieved 2026-08-11 (page dated 15 April 2026).
- Bringing a Dog into the U.S. — CDC / NCEZID. Source of the two-path structure and of the statement that an unvaccinated dog from a high-risk country will not be allowed to enter. cdc.gov — retrieved 2026-08-11 (page dated 1 August 2024).
- Entry Requirements for Foreign-Vaccinated Dogs from High-Risk Countries — CDC / NCEZID. Source of every Path B requirement, the titre windows, the 12-week and 28-day vaccination rules, the 30-day form window, the facility services, the service-dog exception under 14 CFR 382.3, and the travel checklist. cdc.gov — retrieved 2026-08-11 (page dated 22 July 2024).
- Entry Requirements for U.S.-Vaccinated Dogs from High-Risk Countries — CDC / NCEZID. Source of Path A, the Certification of U.S.-issued Rabies Vaccination, and the 31 July 2025 export-health-certificate cut-off. cdc.gov — retrieved 2026-08-11 (page dated 28 April 2026).
- CDC-registered Animal Care Facilities — CDC / NCEZID. Source of the six airports and the named facilities. cdc.gov — retrieved 2026-08-11 (page dated 8 May 2024).
- Bringing an Animal into the U.S. — CDC / NCEZID. Source of the cat rules and of the statement that CDC does not require general health certificates for pets. cdc.gov — retrieved 2026-08-11 (page dated 22 August 2025).
- Requisitos para el ingreso y egreso de mascotas (perros y gatos) a la República de Guatemala — MAGA, Viceministerio de Sanidad Agropecuaria y Regulaciones (VISAR), Dirección de Sanidad Animal. Cuadro No. 2 and the US-destination heading. maga.gob.gt — retrieved 2026-08-11.
Not published / not found, as of 2026-08-11: CDC publishes no price schedule for examination, revaccination or quarantine at a CDC-registered animal care facility — it states only that all costs are the importer’s responsibility. CDC publishes no minimum age, microchip, titre or vaccination requirement for cats entering the United States; those requirements are absent from the instrument that would set them, and their absence is not a statement that a cat needs nothing — states, and airlines, set their own. No CDC-approved rabies serology laboratory located in Guatemala was confirmed in this research; CDC’s instruction where none exists in-country is that the veterinarian may send the sample to the closest approved laboratory. MAGA-VISAR publishes no separate exit sheet for US-bound pets beyond directing owners to CDC.
General information for travellers and people relocating, current as of 2026-08-11, reporting published rules from the instruments named above. It is not veterinary or legal advice. Rules change — CDC rebuilt this regime in 2024 and has amended pages since — so confirm with CDC and with MAGA-VISAR before booking anything. En español: Llevar una mascota de Guatemala a EE.UU..
